TALK OF THE TOWN (1942)

A long and talky comedy of manners and philosophy, aspiring to be something like THE PHILADELPHIA STORY, but not quite making it. Cary Grant plays a labor activist at a local factory who winds up accused of arson and murder when the plant burns down and a foreman is missing and presumed dead. Grant thinks that the owner of the plant set the fire for insurance money, and that the foreman is in on the scheme and is alive and well somewhere; however, Grant can't prove anything and, knowing he won't get a fair trial, he escapes from jail and hides out in an empty house. It turns out that the house is being fixed up by Jean Arthur to rent to a vacationing law professor (Ronald Colman). Colman believes in the power of the letter of the law, and Grant thinks that the human aspect gets all too often overlooked in legal proceedings. Posing as a gardener, Grant engages Colman in some philosophical discussions and a friendship grows between them before the professor discovers Grant's true identity. Grant is soon threatened with lynching and Colman has to buy into Grant's ideas to save him.

Technically, both men are in love with Arthur, but it's the male-bonding relationship that is most important here. Unfortunately, neither Colman nor Grant seem at ease with their characters and Jean Arthur takes the acting honors. Rex Ingram plays Colman's servant; Glenda Farrell is a young woman with whom Colman clumsily flirts in order to get some information about the missing foreman; Lloyd Bridges and Leonid Kinsky have small roles, and an old vaudeville performer named George Watts has a very funny scene as a judge attending a baseball game with Colman and Arthur. There is also an amusing running gag about cooking borscht. Overall, however, not as light on its feet as it should be; it's like a screwball comedy with all the champagne fizz missing. [VHS]